Wait, what? Cory Booker says instead of building wall on the southern border we should build tunnels

Wait, what? Cory Booker says  instead of building wall on the southern border we should build tunnels
Cory Booker (Image: YouTube screen grab via MSNBC)

It’s one thing to blather on about topics in which you seem out of your depth. It’s another make a suggestion that makes it sound like you’re on the side of lawbreakers.

That’s a situation New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker found himself in on Monday when he was sharing his considered opinions about the problem of immigration along the nation’s southern border and the plan to build a security fence to make it harder to sneak into the U.S.

Booker was asked if he would be willing to compromise with Republicans and put limits on immigration and fund the border wall. Here is his response, according to NJTV News:

Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?

I think the wall is a dead end, and I think that people in New Jersey know. Why would we spend billions of dollars to build a wall that even southern states congress people and senators know wouldn’t do anything to really add security to this country? In a time when we should be building bridges not walls, building tunnels in this region, not walls. [Emphasis added]

Tunnels, Sen. Booker? You mean like this one whose terminus is near  Otay Mesa, Calif. and which has been used by Mexican drug cartels to smuggle their wares in the U.S.?

Tunnel discovered by border patrol near Otay Mesa, CA. (Image: Screen grab of LAT video)

As for Booker’s claim that a border fence “wouldn’t do anything to really add security to this country,” a high-ranking member of his party disagrees. In a memo dated Sept. 7, 2008, the Democrat in question advocated “preserv[ing] the integrity of our borders to reduce illegal immigration” by adding “physical fencing along border under very specific circumstances.”

The name of that politician? Barack Obama. The memo was unearthed and shared by WikiLeaks in 2016.

Booker’s appearance in any case was supposed to be about an announcement that he would be co-sponsoring Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’s single-payer health care bill.

The plan is called “Medicare for All,” and would expand the federal health care program that covers those over 65 to all Americans.

Under a single-payer system, the federal government cover medical expenses, which Booker supports.

“You should not be punished because you are working-class or poor and be denied health care. I think health care should be a right to all,” said Booker. “This is something that’s got to happen. Obamacare was a first step in advancing this country, but I won’t rest until every American has a basic security that comes with having access to affordable health care.”

A June Pew poll found that 52% of Democrats and Americans who lean Democrat support federally-funded universal healthcare.

This report, by Henry Rodgers, was cross posted by arrangement with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

LU Staff

LU Staff

Promoting and defending liberty, as defined by the nation’s founders, requires both facts and philosophical thought, transcending all elements of our culture, from partisan politics to social issues, the workings of government, and entertainment and off-duty interests. Liberty Unyielding is committed to bringing together voices that will fuel the flame of liberty, with a dialogue that is lively and informative.

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